Acquisition of GlobalFoundries would enable SMIC to enter volume production of 14nm FinFET products much earlier than originally planned. SMIC began volume production of 28nm chips in cooperation with Qualcomm and has signed an agreement with Qualcomm, IMEC and Huawei to develop 14nm process with volume production slated for 2020.

Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Investment (ATIC), a major shareholder of GlobalFoundries, is reported to be willing to sell its interest in GF.

In July, China’s Tsinghua Unigroup put a bid in to acquire Micron. On the packaging front, in the last year, Chinese companies have purchased bumping house FCI in Phoenix and the #4 global assembly house STATSChipPAC.

Tessera to Acquire Ziptronix

Tessera Technologies announced the acquisition of Ziptronix for $39 MM [link].

Founded in 2000 as a venture-backed spinoff of RTI International, Ziptronix is a pioneer in the development of low-temperature direct bonding technology for 3D integration.

In 2013, Ziptronix announced an agreement with Tezzaron and Novati Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tezzaron, selling its 3D IC development lab in Morrisville NC to Tezzaron, to be operated by Novati [link].

Each wafer has 10 layers of copper interconnect supporting high performance CMOS logic – a total of 80 layers of interconnect and 8 layers of transistors in a finished stack as thin as a single conventional die. Tezzaron’s 8-wafer stack contains active CMOS circuitry and tungsten vertical interconnect. Wafers are 20µm thick; SuperContacts are 1.2µm diameter, 6µm deep, and can be deployed at a pitch of 2.4µm. There are no wire bonds, copper pillars, bumps, or underfill between the layers. The wafers were bonded with DBI technology, invented by Ziptronix and now available from Tessera. (see discussion above)

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